Mephod and means for operating vapor ionic valves for current conversion



Och 1945. u. LAMM EI'AL 2,386,322

METHOD AND MEANS FOR OPERATING VAPOR IONIC VALVES FOR CURRENT CONVERSION Filed Jan. 6, 1945 [AWE/V7345 [/77 4 Aim/05y I Patented Oct. 9, 1945 METHOD AND MEANS OPEBATHSIG VAPG-R IONIG' VALVES FER CURRENT CGNVERSI'O N Uno Lamm and Jan; Ploen, Lu v ka, Sw de a s gnotst Al mitnna Svcnska. 'elst ska Aktierbolag et Vasteras, Sweden, a corporation of Sweden- Aunli'cati nlanuary 1 .3,. .eifi l-Nm 3 25 .45

5 Glaings.

It isknownthat. vapor ion o, a v eior; current conversion, in. which. the; conducting; vapor gem. enallvconsists of; mercu y vapon. d not ope iato well; at. low. temperatures; because 0.13: whichl clif ficulty, failure of ignitionmay oecunso.asto cause interruption, of conduction; and. volta e; su nesz s c.onsequen c,es-., The-re: i reason to; believe,- that: this fact. depends, onthe low density: of the me cum eer. a-tsuel-r temperaturesewhicn m y'oauseiscareitv oi molecules capable of: h me. n zed. It. is theretore customary; water-cooled; ionic valve vessels, to, heatthecooling water during periods; (it not or love harge soas; to; keepthe current converter prepared toreceiv charge; at any instant without disturbances. For this; pur ose,

oweve omp rative ylar e quantities. ot heat are necessary, and such: a heating: i still: m difiicult to achieve in. air-cooled current converters. specially those with. natural airdraueht, arranged for, instance open air or nonrheated' localities-.,

The: purpose of the present inv nti n. is to. e rable vapor ionic, valves.- forcurrent: conv rsion: to be Operatedat a low surrounding temperaturewith a very small demand of heating;- povv i The. invention consists primarily in providing struca til-re and such. a mode of operation; that a valve vessel having internal anode sleeves; and ascreen inside. the vessel Wall surrounding the lower ends of. said sleevesv and the; cathode; space, the. interior of the anode sleeves is heated; by a source: of heat acting therein duringa certaintime while the converter is still inactive before it, is, being loaded and in simultaneously main,tza in,v ing anare poton, the cathode The: necessarypower consumed by the said source of heat. in

Sweden J n ary, 9, 19%

order to keep the valve vessel in an operative cen-..

ditionv has been found to amount to only a small fraction of What would be, necessary for obtaining the same result by external heating, result. depends essentially on the heatinsulating action of the aforesaid screen and to a certain extent also of the anode sleeves, whi h act; oe-ther. with the. screen to sc een the space between. the cathode and the mouths: oi th anode sleeves against. the cold external wall and thereby to keep the temperature of the urfaces, which ar in contact with the. are at a subsequent lo ding essentially higher as would otherwise correspond to the external temperature.

. If the anodes are. provided with. rids. for controlling the direct current voltage or possibly only for stabilizing the. operation; it may be advisable also to cause a current to flow between these grids.

and he catho eorms theoerioos wh na heat: ing; is; consider d des le. A suitab e o o magnitude thison ha oro e la o bejah ut; one. am ere e t each g id: E this puts. a. the e either impress d. d rec urr vo tage bet een. he ends nd. h oth es o make all the so ids: a rv cu r nt; at. the: am ime o theremav e i r s d an. al e nat ie curre t. t ge ot t: h gr d w ll succe d each other i i-carrying current... ho at li ir i ise. the. valueo one ampere en es nts the me n; a ue, 3.3 t e id. cur nts a s the no e nd. the otl-ie-r. pan s djac nt o the an des are k pt a a. temperature his-h r; t an. hat o r ssond ne o 1 the; vaporresSure between the sleeves and; the

cathode d i t e preheatin pe i erebyo preven the.- oeeurr n ia t e of low d ns ty o the. mercury a r h re ioat a the bes de nine, oi he operative per od. e en ho h the emperature f the partsadia ehto he aid. pa h. be sti l.r ,c1ue d-. s he o t e neo ssat'v r pr ducing. ur ents s as: a. rule lQWQI? than that whi h. should beimo e see o the rids. n. normal erati n, a ch n eover. sw tch mast be pr vide which, in connection. thhe. ad; ing of the converter, changes the connection of the. g ids to a vol ag source su a le he eio t constru ion oi a a lleveS Ql s i a e or carrying the invention nto efieo is. i lu t atedin he accompanyin dr wi g, n which;

h s. 1 is. a. ve tical sec on. o a a or o ic val e.- howine the. prefe d term o th inv ntion,

His. 2.. a horizontal. ect n along the l he. 2- oi Fi .1 1.; nd I r Fig... 3. s n enlarged ragmenta y se ti n i ll s= trat ns, another form of t is n ion.

Referencemumeral 1 otes. t e lve ss proper which has ati s ottom a athode recepe ta le Z. lhe ac ive cathod ur ace s in a mans nerknowh. p r so, limited by an insulating cyline, driea scr en 3 to whi h a i h l h p d late s re n. 4 is, t The plate screen 4.. xt nds somewhat above he lower open en s o th anode. sle ves 5- The l ad ne n. conductors of the anodes. 5,3 1.1. he pr ie ed iorm shown nter t e, ottom and, ar sur ounded by nsula ors 8 andsereenih lee es. l- Th anod s ave gr ds. i l for con r llin or stabilizing urposes Acco ing; to a prefer ed form of. th 1 o .se

inventi n, a. current sdrawn du ihs a. certain pe iod before t e startin oi the co ver er, from. th anode rids. o the cathode, This torrent sho ld, how ver, pr ferably be m ted t the orde o magn tu oi one ampere. oer grid 2 l. J I.

(mean value), in order to prevent an overloading of the grids. In the case of the most usual arrangement of six anodes in the vessel, the total grid current would thus be 6 amperes, which is generallysuflicient for the heating in view of the starting after a long period'of no load, the exin series with the grids in normal operation should of course not be traversed by the heating current drawn from the grids. 3 Without these resistances, the voltage source for feeding the grid current will be of the same order of magnitude as the voltage source for the exciting current. This voltage source may be the same for both the grid current and for the exciting current, for instance a common source: of direct current. When themain current is switched on, the connection between the common source of current and the grids is broken and the'latter are connected with their ordinary source of current through the grid resistances. Such an arrangement is illustrated in Fig. 1, wherein a circuit la ordinarily connects grid and cathode 2 with a grid resistance IS, the grid transformer l 8, and switch l5' in the circuit. A second source of voltage I4 is connected to the contact Ma of switch I5 so that before the main source of current derived through grid transformer at 18, the armature of switch [5 may be moved to its dotted line position, thereby. disconnecting the main source of current and connecting source I4. However, when the armature of switch is moved to its full line position, its second source I4 is cutout and the main source connected. In the drawing, the connection to but one grid is shown, it being obvious that similar connections for the other grids may be provided. The said connection may, however, also exist during the preheating period, when itis practically ineffective on account of the high grid resistances. When using the socalled floating grid connection (U. S. Patent No. 2,063,106), it would also be possible to reduce the ohmic value of the ordinary grid resistances so much (for instance to the order of magnitude of ohms orless) as to make it possible to retain these resistances in circuit also during the preheating period. 'The heating may then be efiected by means of the ordinary grid transformer, the current being limited, if necessary, by a reactor in series with the primary winding of the said transformer. The changing-over of the grid circuit in loading the converter may then simply be effected by connecting a resistance between the grid neutral and the cathode. An arrangement of this type is illustrated in Fig; 3, wherein like reference numerals are applied to elements similar to those described in reference to Figs. 1 and 2, but wherein instead of using the second source of voltage as at H in Fig. 1, a high In view of the fact that the space be-- transformer corresponding to a six anode vessel.

All these secondary windings 18 are connected together at one end to form a neutral 2!, while the other ends are connected to the grids, although only one of the connections is shown on the drawing.

In some cases a grid current may be sufficient for heating the space between the cathode and the anode sleeves, so that a separate exciting arc is not necessary for this purpose. For heating the interior of the anode sleeves, separate heating elements 20 may also be placed inside or immediately outside the said sleeves, although the described methods for heating by means of arcs are generally preferred as more convenient. If separate heating elements are used instead of a grid current, one or more exciting anodes external to the anode sleeves should always be active in order to maintain an arc.

Experiments have proved that the aforesaid method of keeping the internal parts touched by the'arc at a high temperature is sufficient for keeping the vapor density in the arc paths sufficiently high for the passage of a stable current when the converter is loaded. The large quantity of vapor developed at the cathode causes a pressure drop between the arc space and the cold condensation surfaces at the wall of the vessel (for instance above the anode sleeves) which is sufliciently high for this purpose.

We claim as our invention: 7

1. The method of operating a vapor ionic valve serving current converting purposes of the type including a valve vessel, anodesleeves, a cathode, and a screen inside said vessel surrounding part of said anode sleeves and the spaces between them and the cathode, which comprises heating the interior of said anode sleeves by a heating source active therein during a certain'period of no load of the converter before the load is turnedon and maintaining at the same time an arc spot'on the cathode.

2. The method of operating a vapor ionic valve serving current converting purposes of the'type including a valve vessel, anode sleeves, anode grids, a cathode, and a screen inside said vessel surrounding part of said anode sleeves and the space between them and the cathode, which comprises maintaining a current of the approximate order of magnitude of one ampere between each anode grid and the cathode. r

3. In vapor ionic valves for current converting purposes, a valve vessel, a cathode, anodes, anode grids, and anode sleeves in said vessel, a screen therein surrounding part of said anode sleeves, two sources of different voltage for impressing a current between said anode grids and said cathode, and a change-over switch for connecting the grids alternatively to each of said voltage sources.

4. In vapor ionic valves for current converting purposes, a valve vessel, a cathode, anodes, anode grids, and anode sleeves in said vessel, a screen therein surrounding part of said anode sleeves, a source of alternating current voltage for impressing a voltage between said grids and a neutral separated from the cathode, and low-ohmic resistances between said source of voltage and the grids.

5. In vapor ionic valves for current converting purposes, a valve vessel, a cathode, anodes, anode grids, and anode sleeves in said vessel, insulated leading-in conductors to said anodes penetrating the bottom of said'vessel, a screen in said vessel surrounding part of said anode sleeves, and means within said anode sleeves for locally heating the interior thereof independently of an operative current through said anodes and relatively independently of the temperature of the remainder of the interior of the vessel.

' UNO LAMM. JAN PLGEN. 

